Blue Starfish

Photo: Claire Goiran · CC BY-NC

Electric blue Linckia starfish are scattered across the sandy slopes and rubble around Ilot Maitre, their vivid coloration a signal of chemical unpalatability to potential predators. They feed on decomposing organic matter and microbial films on hard surfaces, playing an important decomposer role in cycling nutrients back into the reef system, and their regenerative capacity is so extreme they can regrow an entire body from a single severed arm.